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A desperate and largely unknown humanitarian crisis is deteriorating in the Lake Chad Basin region of West Africa, forcing millions of people to flee their homes and leaving millions more in need of humanitarian assistance. Oxfam is providing life-saving support but help is urgently needed to prevent the crisis turning into a catastrophe.

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Did you know that 90% of Africa’s rural land is undocumented, leaving rural communities vulnerable to land-grabbing? It's a matter of human rights. It's their land. Join our collective effort to make a difference not just for Indigenous Peoples and local communities but for the health of the environment and ending poverty and inequality.

Every year, the gap between rich and poor gets even wider – and it’s being fuelled by the use of tax havens. Today, 62 individuals have the same wealth as the poorest half the people on our planet. It is time to bring an end to inequality. It is time to Even it up!

Two years of extended fighting has forced thousands of people to seek refuge in Nyal and the islands surrounding it. Many must regularly walk long distances alone in search of aid and food. We are assisting them to access free and safe travel by training canoe operators and distributing vouchers for transport.

For 40 years, the Quechua communities in Peru have lived with contaminated rivers, and poor health as a result of oil drilling. Teddy Guerra is leading the effort to obtain integral land rights for his community before any more concessions are given to oil companies. Read his story and sign the petition.

Millions of people are being forced to flee their homes, risking everything to escape conflict, disaster, poverty or hunger. We are working in nine of the ten top refugee source countries as well as in refugee host countries. We urgently need your help to reach people in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and in Europe.

With no end in sight to the conflict in Syria, hundreds of thousands of people are living in desperate conditions and exposed to continuing violence. Today, half the pre-conflict population of 22 million Syrians have fled their homes and more than 13.5 million people urgently need your help.

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Today, the European Parliament voted in favour of an European Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), with 487 votes in favour out of 685.

The vote took place a few hours before an EU 'growth summit' in Brussels where EU leaders will discuss the possibility of introducing an FTT.

Nicolas Mombrial, Oxfam’s EU policy advisor, said:

“EU leaders meeting today cannot afford to ignore this overwhelming vote in favour of an EU-wide tax on financial transactions. Latest polls show two-thirds of Europeans support an FTT, which helps explain why MEPs from all political parties and from countries opposing the tax, such as the UK and the Netherlands, voted in favour.

“We are delighted that the European Parliament has listened to campaigners around the world and wants part of the cash raised by an FTT to be used to help poor people at home and abroad hit by the economic crisis and to combat climate change.”

Ricardo Cortés Lastra, MEP from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S & D), said: “Part of the funds from an FTT should be spent to eradicate poverty around the world."

Algirdas Šemeta, European Commissioner for Taxation, said: “From a small tax we can generate substantial revenues to finance growth-enhancing measures, support growth-friendly tax reforms or help fund global challenges such as development and climate change.”

The European Commission’s most up-to-date assessment of the impact of an FTT shows that it could have a positive effect on growth. Implementing the tax would lower growth by an average of just 0.004 per cent per year in the coming decades (-0.28% by 2050) but if a significant portion of the revenue was invested in “growth enhancing public investment”, the overall effect would be positive.

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